Posted by barb on Aug 18, 2005 in
Biking Kameron at Brutal Women had a post yesterday about a fat guy at the gym. This reminded me of my many insecurities about being a fat woman (sorry, Andrew, you can argue all you want, but I am fat). I won’t join a gym. While there are several reasons that I won’t join (easier to exercise in the basement, cost, dealing with twiggy women), the main reason is that I’m too self-conscious to exercise in front of other people. I don’t even let Andrew stay in the basement when I’m doing my weights, unless he’s on the exercise bike. Of course some of this self-consciousness is from the years of being “the fat girl” in elementary, junior high and high school. However, my aversion to others watching me exercise comes primarily from my brother and father. Years ago, when I still lived at home, and my mother and I were trying Weight Watchers yet again, we decided to try an exercise video to get ourselves moving. We would wait until Dave and Dad were supposed to be out of the house for a while (either working or at bowling or some such thing), and then we’d pop the tape in. No sooner had we started, but Dave or Dad would show up at the top of the stairs and laugh at us. That’s right. They weren’t encouraging us in our efforts to become more healthy; they were mocking us. Nice, huh?
When I first started biking a couple years ago, I was still self conscious, but decided to ignore that in favor of doing something that I really enjoyed. Occasionally, I would go out alone on the streets near our house, and I would get “whoop”ed at by passing cars. This only happened when I was alone, or so far ahead or behind Andrew that it was not clear that we were together. Do you think those drivers were telling me “way to go”? No. Of course not. They were saying “look at the fat girl on the bike” with their “whoop”s. After that, I stuck to biking on bike trails. While other cyclists pass me, at least no one was making fun. I have not ridden on the streets this summer at all, even with Andrew. I’m so proud of the progress I’ve made over the last couple years (from barely able to do 5 miles at the end of 2003 to doing 17 miles last weekend – yay me!), that I just don’t know that I can bear another “whoop”.
Tags: bike, rant
Posted by barb on Aug 15, 2005 in
Random Thoughts I was recently involved in a discussion (or, rather, a heated comment exchange) on another blog relating to animal shelters. This is one of those topics where its hard to get any real information out of people because they have such strong feelings about shelters. Buried in the comments on the blog post, there were a few useful nuggets of information, but there were so many hate messages that any opportunity for education was lost in the noise. To prevent that the discussion from going to waste, I’m going to summarize some of the useful bits here.
Where to get help
I’ve been fortunate enough to never have had a pet that I felt I couldn’t control or needed to give away. I have one cat who is quite trying at times, but it’s never entered my mind to give him up or have him put down for his behavior. I do realize, though, that there are pets out there who have emotional problems, and there are times when current owners feel that they just cannot cope any more.
There are a lot of bad reasons to get rid of a pet, and only a few good reasons. If you feel that your family is in danger from your pet, either because he or she has gotten very aggressive, has started growling at family members, or has even bitten a family member, that might be a good reason (though, if you can, you might want to consult a professional animal trainer while keeping the pet separated from the family).
For other problems, your first resource should be your veterinarian — they have a lot of experience with animals, and may have some very specific advice for how to handle behavioral problems. There are also a lot of on-line resources, such as Can We Help You Keep Your Pet?, NOVA Animal Hospital, and Humane Society of Missouri Helpline. Don’t give up quickly on your furry friend – you chose to have them in your life, and made a commitment to their well-being when you took them into your home.
Alternatives to Shelters
There are alternatives to the municiple or humane-society shelters. One of the best resources you might have are animal rescues. These are oraganizations who take in dogs and/or cats, often of a specific breed, and place them in foster homes until permanent housing can be found. By contacting a rescue organization, you know that your pet will not be put-down, and will find a loving home, as most of them (all of them?) require potential new pet-owners to go through an interview and home-visit before placing a pet in their home. They strive to match households with to the animals’ personalities, such as those who would do well with children or those who need to be the only pet in the house.
Animal rescue resources:
- Petfinder – this page is a national registry with available pets from all over the country and a listing of local shelters
- Pets 911
- Dog Rescues
- There are a lot of local rescues, so a good way to locate one is to do a web search for “breed your-state rescue”
In addition to rescue organizations, there are a few no-kill shelters around. These are places that will not put down any animals left in their care. However, since there are more stray animals and unwanted pets than these no-kill shelters can house, many of them are full to capacity.
Some no-kill shelter resources:
- Petfinder – this page is a national registry with available pets from all over the country and a listing of local shelters
- Hearts United for Animals – this is a national no-kill organization
- There are many no-kill shelters around, so to find one in your area, check the phone book or do a web-search for “your-city/state no-kill shelter”
If you have to use a shelter
There are some cases where you need to get the pet out of the house and other resources have failed or are too slow. If you must use a shelter (and please, please, please explore the other alternatives first), keep in mind a few things.
- When a government-owned shelter takes in a stray animal, there is usually a set amount of time that they are required to keep those animals so that owners are able to track down their lost pets. However, when an owner brings in a pet, there is not required waiting period. If the shelter is full, your pet might be put down that night. Make your pet as attractive as you can, so he or she has the best shot of finding a home.
- Bring along the veterinary records of your pet
- Bring along your pet’s favorite toy. Note that some shelters will not let you leave anything with your animal (I even heard of one place that would not let a dog keep his flea collar), but it’s worth a shot. Also, bring along a box of treats, and ask them to share them with the other animals. Again, they might not allow you to do that, but it’s worth a try.
- Make a donation to the shelter; it’s the least you can do.
Donate, donate, donate!
This advice goes for everyone, not just those thinking about leaving their pet at a shelter. Rescue organizations and no-kill shelters usually run on donations, so every few dollars you donate will buy another bag of food or perhaps another place for an animal to live.
Post Comments
I’d like to invite anyone to share either a success story about a shelter animal you’ve taken in or to advertise your favorite rescue organization in the comments.
I know that this topic elicits strong emotions – I don’t like shelters, either. However, I will be monitoring the comments closely, and any abusive or hate-filled posts will be deleted and the IPs from which those comments originated will be banned from leaving any future comments on this site. This is my playground, and I get to set the rules.
Tags: causes
Posted by barb on Aug 14, 2005 in
Pictures I finally caught up with some of my photo albums:
Tags: photography
Posted by barb on Aug 14, 2005 in
Movies The Cinema Arts Theatre started a new series of Movies in the Morning this week. Hopefully that means that they are doing well enough to continue for a while…Andrew and I are certainly enjoying them. This morning’s flick? Arsenic and Old Lace from 1944 with Cary Grant. I’d never seen this movie nor the play that it’s based on. Mortimer Brewster stops at his aunts’ house on his way from the courthouse to his honeymoon, only to find a body in his aunts’ window seat. He finds that his sweet old aunts have been offering their “charity” to lonely old men. Mortimer’s plans to help out his aunt are made more difficult by his fiance, his brother who thinks he’s Theodore Rosevelt, and the sudden appearance of his criminally insane brother. This movie was great fun.
[IMDB link to Arsenic and Old Lace]
Posted by barb on Aug 13, 2005 in
Biking,
Pictures Andrew and I took the bikes out this morning, despite the heat and humidity. I wanted to see more of the W & OD trail, so we packed up the bikes and drove out to Andrew’s office in Herndon. The trail passes really close to his office, and we’d biked past it once before this summer, but that was near the end of our trip. I quite like taking the trail from Herdon because there are fewer road crossings to contend with. The area, while not completely rural, is at least not completely built up yet. There were also a lot of flowers out this morning — way more than I’d seen on my last trek on my bike.
  
Total miles: 17.2 miles (my longest so far…we might just make my goal of 20 miles by the end of the season!)
Tags: bike
Posted by barb on Aug 12, 2005 in
Cute Pets,
Pictures Here’s Artemis contemplating the paper I’ve been working through over at Galaxy Girl. Sometimes I wonder if she’s got a better handle on it than I do.
And here are the boys — carefree, and without a thought in their heads about physics or astronomy:
Tags: grad life, pets
Posted by barb on Aug 12, 2005 in
Science Musings Last weekend I started researching the history of relativity — how was it recieved when it was first presented to the world? who were the dissenters? how was it presented to the general public? I can’t say much about the project that I’m working on (but, trust me, it’s really cool — afterall, I was working on a Saturday and I was excited about it).
I found a few fun things:
- When Einstein’s lectures and book were advertised in Japan, the title was translated to “The Relations of Man to Woman”. There were large crowds, especially women, at the first few lectures and hundreds of the books were sold. After a few days, the tour sponsors were inundated with requests for refunds. (From “Einstein’s Theory Not Exactly What Japanese Expected”, Washington Post, January 14, 1923, p 25.)
- A US Naval astronomer, Captain See, denounced Einstein and relativity after Lick Observatory published results on the bending of starlight which supported relativity.
“I value highly the work of the Lick Obseravatory,” said Captain See, “but I regret to see it issue statements to the press which lend support to the discredited doctrine of relativity than which a greater piece of humbuggery has not appeared in any age.”
(From “Astronomer Calls Einstein Plagiarist”, Christian Science Monitor, April 13, 1923, p 3.)
- In a gossip-like column, Einstein’s ability to figure change is questioned. He and his wife had boarded a street car, and he paid the conductor. The conductor returned his change while Einstein was talking with his wife. Einstein distractedly counted his change, and belived the conductor had given him the wrong change.
The [conductor] recounted the change deliberately, explaining the to professor that it was correct and then turned to the next passenger with a shrug of his shoulders and the remark, “His arithmetic is weak.”
(From “Relativity Author Weak at Figuring, Car Man Declares”, The Washington Post, July 13, 1924, p ES9)
Not related to relativity, but way too entertaining not to include here:
The women of the future may have longer beards than the beared women of the circus today, in the opinion of Dr. Adolph Heilbron, if they continue the invasion of man’s doman of activities.
“As woman exercises more and more the functions formerly belonging to men,” Heilbron writes in the Berlin Morgenpost, “she also begins to assume a masculine growth of hair.”
(Also from “Relativity Author Weak at Figuring, Car Man Declares”, The Washington Post, July 13, 1924, p ES9)
Tags: science
Posted by barb on Aug 6, 2005 in
Movies We continued supporting the Cinema Arts Theatre‘s Movies in the Morning this morning by going to see Bringing Up Baby. This is a screwball comedy of the best sort from 1938. Dr. David Huxley (Cary Grant) is a paleontologist trying to get a million-dollar grant from Elizabeth Random. His attempts to meet with Ms. Random’s lawyer, Mr. Peabody, however, keep getting interrupted by Susan Vance (Katherine Hepburn). While delivering a tame leopard to Miss Vance’s country home, Huxley finds out her aunt is none other than the Ms. Random from whom he’s trying to win the grant. Hilarity ensues.
Actually, it was quite good. While the plot is highly improbable, the humor holds up well over the years. We had a lot of fun.
[ IMDB link for Bringing Up Baby]
Tags: reviews
Posted by barb on Aug 5, 2005 in
Random Thoughts You know who you are. You’re the one in the shiny black “truck”. I use the term “truck” loosely here, because it was one of those trucks with a full cab and a tiny bed — the kind of “truck” bought by someone who really wants a car, but buys the truck-version to look cool.
Here’s a clue: darting into a space that’s already barely large enough for you in front of an accelerating car without signalling is a stupid thing to do. Second clue: when that accelerating car honks at you and slows down to make sure you’ve gotten the message, that is not your invitation to start back into the lane. Perhaps you shouldn’t be surprised when that car honks at you again.
Then he got over one more lane, and since he was behind me, honked. Yeah, he honked at me. I waved.
Sadly, his lane advanced on mine, so he passed me. He rolled down his window so he could give me the finger (since, of course, the windows on his pretend truck were tinted). Me? I smiled and blew him kisses.
(Thank you, Suzanne, for teaching me that wonderful response to the finger!)
* Ordinarily, I don’t really see “cock-sucker” as an insult; after all, I, myself, am a cock-sucker. However, this was the type of guy who looked like the kind of asshole who would be very insulted by this epithet.
Tags: rant
Posted by barb on Aug 3, 2005 in
Biking Yesterday Andrew and I tried to go for a ride after work. We loaded the bikes onto the car rack, drove up to the Vienna Community Center (the W&OD trail goes right by there), and started on our way. After about a mile and a half, Andrew’s gear thingy broke (the control on the handle-bars). His bike was stuck in gear, though he was able to bike back to the car. So we went a total of 3 miles, round trip, and then brought his bike to the bike shop. It will be there for about a week. Sigh.
So, today I decided to go on a ride by myself. This is usually Andrew’s cello lesson night, so I would have been alone in the house anyway, so it seemed like a good night. Unfortunately, his lesson was cancelled, but I decided to go anyway. Maybe I’m crazy. It was 92° with a heat index of 100°. No matter.
Benefits of going out at 5:30 PM when its 92° with a 100° heat index:
- Few other crazy people on the trail
- Maybe it was my imagination, but cars actually stopped more often at crossings than usual
The down-side of going out at 5:30 PM when its 92 ° with a 100° heat index:
- A high proportion of the other crazy people on the trail seem to be brainless cyclists of the not-warning-when-passing sort
- Children. When we go out on weekends, there are generally few children, and those that are on the trail are supervised. Tonight there was a group of 10-year-old (or so) boys. They started by zooming past me (to their credit, they gave me a warning), but then stayed at about 30-50 feet in front of me putzing about. I finally got tired of them, and pedalled for all I was worth to get ahead of them…of course, even though I had signalled with my bell, one of the kids decided to start hot-dogging it at that point. ARGH!
- 100° heat index, of course
Total miles: 3 miles Tuesday, 9 miles Wednesday
Tags: bike